Conventionally, printing images photographed with a digital camera has required downloading images stored in the digital camera to a personal computer, and using an application on the personal computer to print the images on a connected printer. That is, image data workflow has followed the sequence of “digital camera—personal computer—printer,” with the presence of a personal computer being necessitated. Another problem is that the personal computer must be started up in order to print the images stored on the digital camera.
In focusing on these points, the inventors of the present invention have thus far made a plurality of attempts to connect digital cameras directly to printers, and have the digital cameras issue print commands via their standard built-in display devices (“photo-direct printing”).
Potential advantages of using the aforementioned photo-direct printing system include not only the obvious ability to print with ease, without having to have a personal computer up and running, but also the ability to build these systems inexpensively, owing to the fact that a personal computer would not be necessary to do so.
Additionally, using the display devices built into digital cameras as a means for verifying all of the instructions when a digital camera is connected to a printer, especially images to be printed, has the inescapable advantages of obviating any particular necessity for built-in display devices for doing such image verification on the part of the printer, and, moreover, achieving further cost reductions. The aforementioned photo-direct printing system is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-009390.